In Dreams: Going Home
by Wingleader Sora Jade
Summary: Two LotR fangirls want to go home. Middle-Earth is their life, their breath, and they belong there. Definately not your typical "two humans go to Middle-Earth" fic. For one thing, it's a lot angstyer.


In Dreams 

by WSJ 

Two women, still living in the fantacy world of their childhood, dream of going home... 

I don't own LotR and the song is from the FotR soundtrack. 

()()()()() 

Sakura sighed and leaned her head back against the window sill, letting the cold, moist air penetrate her sences and cause her to float away on a cloud of daydreams. For the twenty-nine year old the effect was partially ruined by the fact that just outside the open window she was sitting on was a forty foot drop to the city streets below. It didn't even have a nice view, just buildings, skyscrapers and more apartments. 

But to her companion, sitting on the other end of the window sill, it wasn't ruined at all. In fact, this was the favorite place of both women to come and daydream. It held an almost mystical quality. It could have been that all the fantacy books the duo had read there might have rubbed off a bit of their magic, or it could have been the power of their dreams, which almost always had something to do with Elves (in Sakura's case) or Hobbits (as in her friend's case). 

Sakura's companion was none other then Briar-Rose "Rosie" Jones, a year younger then her at twenty-eight. 

The two women had grown up together, and as soon as they'd turned eighteen they'd moved into this apartment together. Rosie was a freelance writer and artist, and while Sakura also wrote and painted, and occationally had something to sell along with Rosie's down at their "roadside stand", she worked at an insurance firm in the heart of the city. 

Neither were married, and had vowed that they never would be, because quite frankly, there was no more room in their hearts. Between their love for each other as sisters (almost. They always thought of themselves as sisters and told everyone they were) and their undying devotion to Middle-Earth, men took no place in their lives. 

Sakura sighed and tore her gaze from the blue-gray sky overhead back down to the book in her hands. "They wait for me, calling my name. But I can only barely hear it on the wind. So I sing to my people, to my love..." she recited without even looking at the book. 

Without turning her head or accnowledging that she'd heard Rosie almost unconciously continued with the next bit of the poem. "I sing that I cannot follow, though I yearn to. Though my heart is with you, I cannot come. I sing to you, can you hear me calling?" 

In unison the two women sighed, dreaming about the world and peoples they had never seen, but loved with all their hearts. But within the minute the sky became clouded and with a snap Sakura was back in the present world, not the Middle-Earth of millinia ago. 

"Come on Rose, it's starting to snow..." She got off the windowsill and put her hand on the red-head's shoulder. "It's just a book, after all..." But neither of them believed that, and never had. 

_*When the cold of Winter comes,* _

*Starless nights will cover day,* 

*In the veiling of the sun.* 

*We walk in bitter rain.* 

The next day at work Sakura once again drifted from the World and found herself in Tolkein's ancient England. She was imagining herself as an Elvish war-woman who captured not only Legolas's, but Aragorn's heart for her own and had a goofy, love-starved smile on her face when a hand landed heavily on her shoulder. 

"Ms Numan, again? What has you so enraptured that you daydream in the middle of this big business meeting?" her boss said. Sakura jerked up and blushed scarlet when she saw her co-workers snickering at her from around the big table. 

Realising that her boss, Mr Kennedy, was still waiting for the answer to his question she looked up at him with genuine longing in her eyes and said simply "Home." 

Mr Kennedy raised an eyebrow. "Home? Then why don't you just take the rest of the day off and go there. Or if you mean the home of your childhood then go visit them. There's no reason to daydream about it." 

Sakura shook her head whistfully and a small chuckle escaped her lips. "I wish it were that simple sir, I really do." 

_*But in dreams* _

*I still hear your name.* 

*And in dreams* 

*We will meet again.* 

"Do you think they'll _ever_ come for us Saka?" Rosie asked as she ran a brush through her long red hair. 

Sakura sat down on the edge of the bed and began to plait her own long blond locks into a thick braid. "I don't know Rosie. If anyone was to go, it would be us, but..." she shook her head. "This is crazy! Devoting our whole lives to chasing a fantacy that fades into stardust every time we get close. It's just a book." 

Rosie tied a ribbon into her hair and placed a hand on her friend's night-gowned knee. "It isn't. We both know that. It's not like we were born there and abandoned here, but..." she trailed off, trying to grab hold of her own jumbled thoughts on this subject. 

"Somehow, the magic stays, and you just know." Sakura supplied. "I'm sorry Rose. I believe every bit as much as you do, but I haven't had a good day." 

"Get chewed out by Mr Kennedy for daydreaming about Middle-Earth in one of his preeeciiiiousssss meetings?" The way she said 'precious', all long and drawn-out like Gollum would, made Sakura laugh and she nodded. 

"Quit. Then you can come back to working the streets with me!" Rosie said, pleading. 

Sakura hesitated for only a moment, and then smiled, stress draining out of her body. "I'd love nothing better." 

_*When the seas and mountains fall* _

*And we come, to end of days,* 

*In the dark I hear a call,* 

*Calling me there.* 

The next week Sakura was back to full-time 'working the streets' as she and Rosie liked to call it. It was this that had gotten both of them disowned by their families, but neither cared. "The less ties to this world then the easier it is to get to Middle-Earth." they'd always agreed. 

'Working the street' concisted of doing anything at all to get money. Sometimes they barely scraped by, and Sakura would have to get a job to pay for food and rent, but as soon as they were relitively stable she always quit, or got fired, and came back to the streets with Rosie. 

Sometimes Sakura would play her flute or piccallo while Rosie danced on the cobble-stones of the town square, sometimes Rosie would start up a jaunty tune on her guitar and Sakura would dance. Other times the two would launch into a haunting melody together, flute winding around guitar while Rosie's sweet voice filled the air. Then just as quickly they'd hit a right angle and dive into a roudy German drinking song while the watchers stamped their feet and clapped their hands and sometimes even sang along. 

Sometimes they'd just sit and sing while showing off their paintings and stories for others to buy. Other times one or the other of them would stand up and launch into a recitation of a poetical peice or a bit of stand-up comedy, at which they were both rather good. 

Every time they would always wear what they termed 'traditional' clothing. Since you could never, _ever_ get Sakura into a skirt she usually wore high black boots, green leggings, a dark green, sleeveless tunic and a long gray cape pinned at her neck with a silver dragon broach which perfectly matched the dragon tattooed on her left shoulder. 

Rosie would wear a long black skirt, black boots a bit shorter then Sakura's, a white, off-the-shoulder peasent blouse, long jangly earrings, many, many bangle bracelets and a long silver pendant with the Elven rune for 'home' carved into it. Sakura had one just like it, and often wore hers as well. 

At times, if they could find the right wood and gut at the right prices, Sakura would take out an old knife from under her matress and make as many long bows as she could. These always sold like hot cakes, especially to tourists. In fact, Rosie and Sakura were becoming something of a tourist attraction themselves, and Sakura was having to get less and less jobs as the money kept going longer and longer. They didn't mind. Being on the streets and performing were what they loved. 

_*I will go there* _

*And back again.* 

All had been going well for about a year, when Rosie started to have the dreams. In them she was always a stout Hobbit warrior-woman facing masses of orcs. And no matter how hard she would fight they would always get her in the end. Then she would stumble and fall, and the last thing she always saw before she woke up would be a gold ring. 

The dreams continued for almost a week before she finally told Sakura. 

"Something's happening. The Ring's been found again, or Sauron's reawakened and forged another one, or something. And we're not there to see it. We're not there to help!" Sakura raged, pounding her fist into the wall. 

"Oh, you'll hurt yourself!" Rosie cried. 

"I don't care!" Sakura yelled, fists pounding the rough, heavy brick wall with each word. "They need us there and I want to go home!" A single tear found it's way down her cheek as she sunk to the floor, blood dripping from her slashed and bruised knuckles into the fine gray carpet that had at one time been white. 

"It's not really our home." Rosie said quietly, kneeling down and beginning to clean up Sakura's hands. The blond remained in the same possition, head leaning back against the wall, knees peaked up towards the sky, hands hanging limply at her sides, eyes closed. Rosie continued. "It isn't our home. We weren't born there, heck, we've never even been there. It's just a stardust fantacy we've been chasing. It's only a book." she said the last sentence in almost a whisper, a tear finding its way down her cheek as well. 

It was then that Sakura began to laugh. It wasn't the loud, rumbling laugh that Rosie was so used to hearing, but a low, bitter laugh that scared her. Sakura jerked her torn hands out of Rosie's grip and held them up in front of her eyes. 

"You sound like me Rosie. Well I'll tell you something. It's _not_ only a book. They need our help, and it _is_ our home, in heart and spirit if not in body. And I plan to help them. _I am going home!_" She had risen to her feet now, and the last sentence was spoken almost as a command. 

There was a blinding flash, and Rosie suddenly saw Sakura as she truly was, as she was meant to be, as she appeared in another world and time. The tall Elven warrior that stood where her best friend had moments before reached out toward Rosie with torn and bleeding hands and said simply, 

"Come with me." 

_*But in dreams* _

*You still call my name.* 

*And in dreams* 

*We will meet again.* 

Smiling through her happy and excited tears, the red-headed Hobbit reached out a hand, grasped the Elf's, and in a flash the two were gone. 

_*I will go there,* _

*And back again.* 

And yet, the two women who preform on the streets are still a tourist attraction. 

()()()()() 

What do you think? I rather like it myself, except for the confusing ending that even _I_ can't figure out. The poem that the two recite at the very beginning was written by Aniron, part of her poem _Lament to the Sea_. It belongs to her, not me. 

God bless. 


End file.
